The average boss looks at a curriculum vitae for just three minutes while one in five make a decision on a candidate after perusing it for under a minute, new research suggests.

Despite almost a quarter of candidates claiming they have excellent written communication skills, many of them fall foul of using worn clichés in their CVs, the survey of 2,000 from New College of the Humanities found.

The university-level college, founded by philosopher Professor AC Grayling, says nearly 500,000 graduates will flood the job market this month - but thousands will make silly mistakes on their CV, which in turn dampens their chances of becoming employed.

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CV sins: According to bosses, typos and grammatical errors are the biggest turn off - followed by a casual tone

Unsurprisingly, the worst mistakes to make on a CV are typos and grammatical errors, especially using 'there' 'their' and 'they're' incorrectly, and 'your' and 'you're'.

This is followed by a casual tone, such as using 'you guys' in email correspondence or signing off with 'cheers' to a prospective employer - as well as coming across as laid-back on the CV.

In third place is the use of jargon and clichés that a candidate on BBC show The Apprentice would be proud of, such as 'thinking outside the box' and stating perfectionism as your weakness.